Saturday night, after training with Brazilian Top Team, Jason Miller, Patrick Cummins and Ryan Parsons had another unique experience in Brazil. I took them to see the most traditional samba place in Rio de Janeiro.

The headquarters of Mangueira -- the most traditional samba team of Rio’s carnival -- is located in the middle of Mangueira favela. Every Saturday night, all the samba lovers go there to have fun.

When we picked him up, Miller surprised us, wearing white pants and shoes in order to look like a typical samba dancer. When he entered the place, Miller got really excited.

“Man, that’s awesome! How can I come here and not samba with these people?” said Miller with his unique spontaneity, as he went straight to the circle line where the local samba dancers were dancing (as you can see in the accompanying video).

After few hours of dancing in Mangueira, the three Americans went to see the most traditional district of Rio’s downtown, Lapa, where they had fun until 4 a.m. in the nightclub Rio Scenarium.

On Sunday, knowing that a cold front was headed for Rio, the trio decided to spend their day off on the Barra Beach, instead of going to the Shooto Brazil event.

”We had a great time, walking on the beach and resting for our last day of training at Renovacao Fight Team,” said Jason, after we met him on Sunday night for dinner at Braz, the best pizza place in the city. “We already miss Rio.”